The story broke on November 29th, 2017. I still remember it! Which isn’t shocking, considering it was less than six months ago, but still – it was a rush to see Matt Lauer finally, at long last, get his comeuppance in the public sphere. He was thoroughly outed as a sexual predator, the kind of powerful douchebag who assaulted coworkers on location, locked coworkers in his office so he could whip out his penis, and sexually assaulted a woman until she lost consciousness. He was fired within 48 hours of ONE victim coming forward because NBC executives believed – at the time – that it was not an isolated incident. Like, that’s what they told NBC staffers. It was widely believed that Lauer’s predatory behavior was an open secret among his colleagues and NBC News management. Ann Curry even confirmed that she warned management about Lauer back in 2012. But none of that matters now, you guys. Because NBC did an in-house investigation using NBC lawyers and they cleared NBC management of everything!!
NBCUniversal said managers at its venerable “Today” show and at NBC News had no knowledge of inappropriate behavior by star anchor Matt Lauer prior to November of last year, when he was summarily dismissed from NBC after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. The company detailed its findings in an internal report made public on Wednesday.
NBCU said Lauer admitted on Nov. 28, 2017, that he engaged in sexual activity with a female complainant who had one day earlier approached NBC News management. The company found his behavior to be in violation of company standards and fired him. “Within the two weeks after Lauer’s termination was announced publicly by NBC News on November 29, 2017, the company received information about three additional women, who each alleged that Lauer had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace with them in 2000, 2001 and 2007, respectively.” NBCU decided to conduct an internal investigation of the matter and consulted with two outside law firms – Proskauer Rose and Davis Polk – as part of the process.
The investigation, which relied on accounts from 68 different people, including current and former “Today” hosts and NBC News management, ultimately found “no evidence indicating that any NBC News or ‘Today’ Show leadership, News HR or others in positions of authority in the News Division received any complaints about Lauer’s workplace behavior prior to November 27, 2017,” the report said. “All four women who came forward confirmed that they did not tell their direct manager or anyone else in a position of authority about their sexual encounters with Lauer. Current and former members of NBC News and ‘Today’ Show leadership, as well as News HR, stated that they had never received a complaint about inappropriate workplace behavior by Lauer, and we did not find any contrary evidence.”
Say what you will about Fox News – it’s the far-right propaganda machine of the Bigly administration – but when Roger Ailes was first outed as a predator by Gretchen Carlson, Fox News (and News Corp.) management did the right thing and they hired an outside law firm to do an “audit” of Ailes and the culture of Fox News. More women came forward because they felt like they were speaking to someone impartial, rather than speaking to wagon-circling bros who would fire them for being mouthy. My point? This internal investigation means nothing for NBC. This was Andy Lack calling up the in-house lawyer and saying “clear me of everything” and the lawyers saying “right-o, boss.” Also: did they even speak to Ann Curry? Because she said pretty clearly that she told management about Lauer SIX YEARS AGO.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
BS.
…And water is wet, the sky is blue…
Of COURSE they “found” nothing! They represented management and found FOR management… BIG surprise.
Where is the NY DA in all this? Why isn’t there any prosecution for Lauer’s assaults?
One question: If in-house council found managment “innocent” of knowing about assaults, can Lauer sue them for false termination?
I was wondering that myself. I REALLY hope not.
Because , of course they did. And to celebrate overcoming these hardships bonuses will be upped for them all.
This from the same NBC people that “highly suggested” all employees sign the “Tom Brokaw is a Saint” letter.
So NBC is going to rely on whether victims went thru its formal HR complaint process. I wonder if NBC had regular orientations about making complaints or if it was just written down someplace to cover their asses.
I worked for NBC in Washington for a few years in the 90’s and even then they had regular seminars about sexual harassment and what it was and what you were supposed to do if you were harassed. Honestly they were useless. NBC at the time had one of the best HR and processes for complaints of any company I have ever worked for. The problem is the culture, which is the problem at most companies. A lot of women just shrugged off most harassment for fear of not being labeled a team player. They certainly didn’t report it. If someone was really bad you might hear some water cooler talk. It’s a bigger problem than reporting it and no one taking you seriously, it’s more women putting up with it until it is unbearable because you start at lower power position and you are trying to move up, then feeling stupid for not reporting it earlier and thinking no one will believe cause you took to long or help you so you ignore it some more.
As far as Anne Curry goes I think she may have told some higher ups Lauer was being a bully and yelling at lower level employees or overly friendly with some. In a newsroom non civil bullying behavior happens a bit, and overly friendly behavior happens too. Anne didn’t really say what she said to them. She’s a reporter and I highly doubt without definitive proof she would say he harassed someone. I’m not sure how she would have had definitive proof. She said she warned them, but she didn’t say how.
Now they did use some outside law firms for this so not sure why people are totally dissing this, but I don’t think it would matter much if it was totally outside people. Even if you have the processes if women don’t feel like they can report it for fear of losing their career you have a problem. Tina Fey is right. You need more women in the room, in this case upper management, more than just the token woman trying to hold onto her position. It changes the conversation and culture and then when the men try to harass the women feel more empowered to report and hopefully it’s handled better so you don’t have a portion of overly powerful men abusing their power.
NBC executives’ denial about their role in protecting Lauer is about deflecting financial liability. What cowards and liars. I guess there will be a ton of lawsuits coming up. Rarely watch now, but l will never watch NBC again.
Daily mail said they interviewed Ann Curry but in typical daily mail writing the sentence was poorly written and let the reader rereading 3x. I still was unclear of exactly who spoke to her after reading it. The NBC Lawyers?
So true about the quality of DM writing. FFS, many of the articles are so bad there is no name attached to it – “Daily Mail Writer” (or something similar) appears instead of a specific journalist’s name.
Lol, just like the republican led committee found no Russian collusion 👌 👌
Bingo!
Yup. Nothing to see here, move it along!
So the foxes all gathered up and asked each other, “Did YOU kill any chickens?” And they answered, “No, did YOU?”
Of course, the answer was, “No!”
And the foxes went back to the chickens and the owners of the chickens and said, “We have thoroughly investigated this matter, and have determined that every fox is innocent! There was NO chicken killing. And so that ends this matter.”
And they slunk back off into the wilderness.
But not too far.
Of course they did. They were always going to reach the conclusion that they were not guilty of wrongdoing.
NBC execs cleared themselves?
Statement from Emperor Zero (pending):
“I, state your name, also known as the Dotard to my new friend in Korea (North or South?), do slalomly (sp) swear (I love to swear…so much fun…) to tell the truth that I am clear (grammar) of all wrong doing in the Michael Cohen (a very fine man) case. I only hire the best people. Bigly.”
This is so disgusting. Is Andy Lack a moron or is he one of those jerk pervs who we are discovering exist in more and more places? What’s the deal at NBC? Because you’re right, after having allowed the wrong thing, Fox did the right thing and at least took an honest look. Do I think that routed the problem totally? No. But at least they didn’t just look down their own pants and shrug.
If this is true then I guess Gail King had no idea at all about Charlie Rose………nobody knows anything….
Just like the police does every time they investigate their own for shootings and bad practice. SHOCKER
The only thing I can get out of this is that NBC attorneys realize they have to pretend to do something about the problems to fight more lawsuits. It’s a cesspool. Someday the tapes from The Apprentice will come out, and we will find out how much they covered up to make Trump look like a successful businessman–conveniently giving him a polished public image as a lead up to Putin backing his Presidential run. None of this is innocent.
When Fox News are better than you, you really need to do some soulsearching.
Thank god their own investigation found NBC execs not guilty. And here I’ve been so worried they might get held accountable for fostering NBC’s corporate culture of toxic masculinity. SMDH
I just cleared myself of any wrongdoing during my teen years.
you do not have to report crimes or medical conditions to HR. You have right. NBC is shooting itself in the foot. Again, the exe should have help these victims to the hospital and immediately fired Ml each and every time.
This is the truth victims do come forward they need medical care and assistance in bring the criminal to justice.